The Sun. — London, England, 1808-10-27 00:00:00

I I !.arched from Lisbon on the 13th, and, of course, e befor., this time reached Spain. On that day not a :rigle Frenchman had arrived in France from the Tagus ; but there is reason .to believe that the second division would reach Rochelle about the - 20th, The first division, according to the last accounts, was working up, but much dispersed, towards Qui beron Bay. WE have often had occasion to admire the Oppo sition Writers for the ingenuity which they display in " t wisting words and meanings as they please ;" an d a Morning Paper of this day has exhibited a very g ood specimen of its skill in this respect. In our Observations yesterday on the illiberal spirit of pre- Judication which had taken place relative to the fratners of the Convention of Cintra, we imputed much of the censure which had been cast upon that znea 'nre, to the disappointment of too highly raised exPeaation in the public mind, naturally'arising from the ardent accounts of our successes in Portugal, and Particularly of the battle of Vimiera, which appeared ill all the Public Journals in this Country, those in Op !• positi o -n as Well as those favourable to Government. The d a il y Print alluded to has, with some dexterity, endeavoured to make it appear as if we particularly referred to Sir ARTHUR WELLESLEY'S Letter detail ing that vidory, and not to the very SLifiguine ac counts which, derived from various sources, fill ed the Columns of the Morning and Evening p apers all over the Kingdom ; and excited a general belief that the action was decisive of the fate of JUNOT, and that the next thing we should hear of would be a total surrender on the part of the French. Weappeal to Sir A. WELLESLEY'S Letter i n Proof, that we did not refer to his account of the aa km, as he merely detailed the events of the day, and rendered due praise to 'the Officers and Troops un der his command. Sir ARTHUR does not re- Present the attioti as likely to be decisive of the fate of Portugal, or give the least hint as to its Probable consequences. With the modesty that al ways charaaerizes a great mind, he states no more than what he saw, and heard from indisputable audio ! rity, and expressly confines himself to the occasion. We, therefore, leave the Opposition Paper, which, has been remarkably bitter in its hostility, not only. Upon Sir A. WELLESLEY, but upon the personae qualities of his Whole family, to the free exercise of its • Ingenuity, in other fespeas ; but we shall not permit it to distort our meaning, and wrest it into a , a attack upon ra character whom we have often held forth as one of the brightest ornaments of the Country, and whose political, as well as military talehts, we hold in the highest 'rape& and admiration. boto the V i al ory at Vimiera, considered by itself , •a. lllin g Could be said t o o warm in pra is e o f t h e a bl e kasp os i t.ons and enterprizing spirit of the Commander, Cr of the va l our, ' stea di ness; d i scipline, and perse verance of the Troops, as we know from unquestion able authority, that the French Generals in Lisbon s ay, that they were not only teaten (which must som etimes happ en i n t h e common course o f war), but so lealen that they could not, by all their eXertiOns, get their men to turn their faces to our tro ops, after experiencing three Or four attacks of the bayonet. Yesterday, about twelve o'clock, his MAJESTY i?rrived at the Queen's Palace from Windsor, where L 4 e was received by the Dukes of YORK, KENT . , umBERLAND, and SUSSEX. At two o'clock, his . b "" 4 "EsTY held a private L evee , w hi c h was atten d ed y 1341'1116r E xcellencies the Swedish Ambassadors, the Arch thetP "t. Canterbury, the Lord President of the Council, three "rs Lord of the Treasury, the Lord Privy Seal, the tt %ecretaries of State, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Il lt Niaste,Y-General of the Ordnance, the President of the be4:30:4 Trade, the inclge Advocate, the Marquis 7of (Gr oom'. Lord Amherst ,in waiting), Gen e r a l s fi arcourt Tyle r ;- N l ie v vaiting) Thornton and Nightingale ; Ad mira l 3s rs Elliot and Fawkner. Tile followin to 1 ) 1 3 MAJESTYg had the honour of bei ng presented : Li e f e,, u ' e naot-General Thornton, on his promotion to be Se na-„ Nlajo r of the First Regiment of Guards. 'ugh Elliot Esq, upon his being appointed Captain-Ge- I neral and Governor o . t the Leeward Islands. tu ii gal rigitdier-Gen e r a l Ni ghtingale, upon his return from Por . Admiral Tyler, who brought the Russian Fleet to Eng +and, by the Earl of , Carriden upon his promotion. • .„His E xce ll enc y L e Chevalier De Brinckm an , t h e S we 'lsh Ambassado'r, by Mr. Canning. Atter which, his Ex flericv hail a private audience of his Majesty, and delivered 'ls credentials. lie was most gracicnsly received. , Le Ch eva li er D'ADLERBERG, the Sw e di s h Am bassador Reavi, took leave of his MAJcs - ry, previou s t o hi s ng England. io di e MAJESTY held a P r i v y C ounc il , and gave au etl,„ bist er ' to the Duke of P ORTLAND , t h e Cabinet Mi , Ry t : Present, the Marquis of DOUGLAS and Mr. M a Ri th e J u d ge -Ad vocate , w h o l a i d before his its A j k TY the proce e din gs o f some Courts-Martial,. • r , — uout seve n o ' c l oc k hi s M AJESTY set off on his e 'urn to Windsor. .- • lc Tu esday morning H IS M AJESTY, t h e, D uke of E NT, Prince sses A UGUSTA and AmeLzA, accom panied by Lords WALSINGIIAM and ARDEN, LT Ge nerait 4 rid—. aAARCOURT and F ITZROY , C o l one l s DESBROW TAYLOR, and Lady G. MURRAY . , took an siring ir! Windsor G reat P ark, and returned at twelve 't) clock to the Palace. W indsor, n i g h t the Prince Of WALES arrived at In dsor, on a v i s i t to their MAJESTIES. a HIS M AJESTY held a Council yesterday, at which n O r d er was signed for further Proroguing Parlia ment from t h e Ist of November to the 1 oth of Us* c l telrnbitr. I t will then be still further Prorogued till t he o f business 7 middl e o f Januar kt.y, wh en i t w ill meet for the NAVAL NEWS. PLYMOUTH, OCTOBER 25.--:-.Arrived the Raleigh Sloop of War from a cruize off Rochefort. Captain J. 0. MASEFIELD, her late Commander, died on the Ivrnize, arid his body was conveyed to Gijon, where it:was interred with the usual respect and ceremony. Arrived als6 L'Eclair Sloop of War from the Coast of Spain ; and Rowena Sloop of War, from Coruri na—she is said to have brought intelligence of im portance respe6ting the French and Spanish armies, and it is rumoured that the latter have gained a vic tory over the former. The town of Corunna is stated to have been illuminated for three nights, but whe ther'on account of a fresh vi&ory, or on the arrival of the British troops, is not stated. Colonel HA.mIL , TON is arrived in the Rowena. • The •Sloop Many A nn , o f Ek e t er , `Captain 1 : 10D. DER, Vias lost on Sunday night last in a gale of wind, in Bigbury Bay, and all the crew perished. About 50 Sail Of Alerchantmen passed up 'Chan nel yesterday, under Convoy 'of the Tamar Frigate. PORTSMOUTH, OCT.;(L—Arrived his Majesty's Ship Violet, from Guernsey; also the Levant, from London, bound to Malaga. His Majesty's Ship Pliirbe this day came into ;ha harbour. His Majesty's Ship Skyla'rk takes convoy to the Downs. We had a most severe gale of 'wind all last 'night, frdfn the S. W. and Many vessels, 'in consequence, laying at Spithead, brought home their anchors . ; there are now two ships on shore in Stokesbay, the names of which we have not been able to ascertain. The Ship Magnet, of London, JOHN COVERDALE, Master, laying at Spithead, drOve, during the night, athwart another vessel laying to 'leeward, and thereby carried away his boWSprit, and received sundry other damages. DEAL, OCT. 26.-Recnain in the Down's his *Mi. jesty's Ships as per last. The Royal Sovereign, Capt. HORNBEY, for Gibrat 7 tar, is now going into Ranisgate with the loss of aiichorS and.cables. SIiZETINESS, OCT. 25.—Arrived the Bloodhound G - nn-brig from Heligoland. Came'down from Longreach His Majesty's Ship Agincourt to the Great Nore. SOCIETY FOIL TITE tiNTCOURAptMENT OF ARTS, MANUFAC• TURES, AND COMMERCE. The first Meeting, for the Session, of this very useful Society, took place in their Great Rootn„in the Adelphi, yesterday evening, when Dr. Pownt., of the Vice 7 Presidentf, and we may add (from the observation we have made on the score of attend ance of the other Gentlemen ? who, with the Doctor, fill the list of the acting Vice-Presidents of the Society), one of the most efficient Chairmen of the Institution, took the President's Seat in his absence, and opened a Season, which, if it may be judged from the claims already brought be fore the Society, bids fair to rival those which have gone before ; the more particularly in those most useful branches of science, which so essentially tend to the public benefit, namely, Improvements in Me chanism and Agriculture ! • Soon after seven o'clock the Secretary, Dr. TAY LOR, opened the business of the Meeting, and it gave. us much pleasure to see him in that state of healtb which he is FO richly entitled to from his summer excursion. We are informed that the worthy Dr. visits 'Weymouth annually in the vacation, and to his honour we record it, we have equal reason to believe, that he diffuses his professional knowledge in and about that neighbourhood gratuitously to the indigent poor. Several interesting Papers were read from men of great ingenuity, which tended to improvements in Mechanism, and which will be immediately laid be fore a Committee of scientific men,- appointed to-in vestigate the merits of the Candidates who come within this class. Nor were the Papers on the planting of Timber Trees from Dr. TRACK ER Y, of Chester ; on East India Products, from Dr. Itox- BURGH, of Calcutta; on a Steep for Grain ; and also- on improvements in Manures, from Mr. J. Fox, of Cardiganshire ; on the cure of Her rings, irons Mr. G. EVRINGPIAM, of Yarmouth ; on the culture of Hemp, from Mr. C. F. GREECE, of Long Point ; also on the same subject,' from Dr. LA TERIIIERE, of Quebec, received with less avidity, so anxious are the Society to do justice to those who chuse to bring before them any communications. A letter was also read from her Serene Highness the Margravinc of ANSPACH, who is preparing from. the grapes grown in her garden, at Brandenburgh House, Hammersmith, a \Vine, which from the experiments she made the preceding - year, promises to be equal to Burgundy of the first quality, and will probably encourage an extensive prepaiation of Wine from English Grapes. The Society's House, during the recess, has tinder , gone a thorough repair; and notwithstanding our pi'judice against that abominable style of building, which displays stone pillars opposed to a brick fabric, we cannot but allow that the premises , externally carries with them great beauty, and which is only to be equalled by the neatness and convenience within. A report prevailed yesterday, that a Russian house in the city had received a letter from the Continent, stating that groat differences had taken place at Er forth between the two Emperors, and that the Em peror of Russia had set off in great disgust for Vien na; No credit is given to the rumour. Dr. INIANsEL, is.to be consecrated Bishop of Bris tol, on Sunday, at Lambeth-palace, by the Archbi shop of CANTELDURV. AS HISTORICAL ,OF I,}l F: , , M . PAIGN OF BUONA-PARTE iN IN THE YEARS 1795 AND 1797. PASSAGE OF TRE PO AND COMBAT OF !tomato. BL'ONAPARI% boasts of having deceived 'BE/it:- LIEU, by direEting his march to Plaisance, to pas the Po on that side, while BEAULIEU was expetaing the French army " between the fortifications of Tesino and the redOnbts of I, a , • vi re a. I havri,nOt the least regolleaion of ever seeng a re?:olht at Pavia ; but let it be granted that they are there, since 800- NAPARTE will have it - and nOw let us attend to the real fa&s. BEAULIP.O had continued to fall back through Valenza and Pavia, not because he had not foreseen the designs of BUONAPAUI'E, but because he had immense magazines at Pavia and . Milan, and was anxious to cover the removal of the baggage and stores of every kind which belonged to his army and his hospitals. BUONAPARTE wishes' to have it understood - that EEAULIEU had been so deficient in foresight, as to leave the passage of the Po without defeneei but his own letter contradi&s his objet. Ob'serVe his words : " BE,WLIEU ordered a body of six thousand in . " Tantry '1)(1 tl:vo thousand cavalry to advance to " hieet us, and oppose our debarkation, or to at " tack us before we should have time to form." Is not this a confession, in direct terms, that BeAuLtEtt had not only divined his purpose, but taken measures to oppose his passage ? Is it not a most palpable contradiEtion oo the side of Buo- NAPARTE ? But this is one of those trifling inad vertencies into which our hero is perpetually fall . ing ; and We over=look it, in the present case, so much the more willingly, .as we have tacharge him with more important faults, with falsehoods of the most gross and glaring kind ! Here is one re lative to this very passage of the Po. BUONAPARTE says that BEAULIEU sent eight thou sand men to oppose him ; and I have it in my power to prove incontestibly that he • did not send half that number. BEAULLEU having failed in his design on the three fortresses, of which we spoke before, was convinced that he could no longer' defend the passage of the Po, for want of sufficient troops, since the whole of hii army did not amount td quite twenty-four thou sand men. What, then, was the course which he pursued ? He instantly dispatched orders to Pavia and Milan, to send, without delay, to the Tyrol, by the way of Mantua, every thing that belonged to the Austrian army. It was sufficient for his purpose, to de- fend the passage of the Po for a fcw instants, just to enable him, with his handful of troops, to gain the road to Lodi, on the other side the Adda ; and this manceuvre completely. succeeded, and covered his re treat. He had detached the regiment of Neapolitan cavalry, three hundred pontoneers, and a battalion of carbineers, with orders to take the road of Cod ogno, and. dispute the debarkation of the French. These troops fulfilled their mission, and it was not till after several hours of a most vigourous re sistance, that they were compelled to fall back be. hind Codogno. BUONAPAUTE says, " that during the night, an " other corps of five thousand Austrians, which was " at Casal, marched from thence at four in the after " noon, to support the body which was at Fombio ; " that it reached Codogno about midnight, where " General LA HARPE had taken up his head-quar " ters ; and that it sent forward some sharp " shooters, who drove in the advanced posts of the " French. General LA HARrE, continues he, mount " ed his horse, to reconnoitre their force; he ordered a " demi-brigade to advance ; the enemy was com pletely defeated, and disappeared; but, by a mis " fortune irreparable for the army, General LA " HARPE was struck by a ball, which killed him on " the spot—General BERTUIER immediately re " paired to Codogno ; he .pursued the enemy, took " Casal from him, and a vast quantity of baggage.", It must be confessed that 14ToNAPARTE is an astoishing man in his narrations. .When he has not great things to recount, lie invents them, writes them, publishes them ! The world blindly credits them, and thuS makes an extraordinary creature of him without difficulty For example, in this passage of the Po, he labours to have it belieVed that he had thirteen thousand men. to contend with, and that, in despite of them, lie crossed the Po at Plaisance, and marched to Lodi, though he had then only a body of six thousand five hundred men with bim ! ! ! While the real fad is, that instead of thirteen thousand, be was not opposed by four. thousand ! He speaks of a corps of five thousand Austrians that marched from Casal; and this corps never existed but in the, official report EUONAPARTE! All that BEAULIEU had sent was, as mentioned above, a regiment of Neapolitan ca valry, consisting at most of two thousand four hun dred men, a battalion of musqueteers, and three hundred pontoneers. It was this detachment only which surprised General LA HARPE at Codogno, defeated bitty, killed a vast ualinr of his troops, together with himself, and made neally two Or, said prisoners, whose arrival occasioned a consider able degree of alarm at Lodi; as I aLn now about to mention. L had set out frogl =the Castle of St. Angelo, and was prOceeditliffom PaVi2 to Lodi on the morning of the 6tt: Or Oh of May. I was just t,vo miles from the latter place, when I saw_a great crowd of people, of all sexes and age+, tunning towards rite, with consternation it their face. The instant they perceived me, they all cried out } " Back! Back ! you cannot go . to Lodi ; the French are already in possession of it." I would not, at first, believe them ; but seeing the number of fugitives increase every mOrirgewt, "could no longer doubt the truth of I:. their stor'y,ranu rode lx!ck aimost as far as the Castle of St. Angelo; r was tollowed by a prodigious num ber of waggons and hag,v!ge carriers, who bad left everything behind them, and taken their holies out of the traces as fast as po,sible, to ride in quest of shelter into some of the distant forests. It is nOw time to see what had occasioned all this confusion. About eight in the morning, the two thousand prisoners made at Codogno, being arrived within sight of Lodi, several of the common people gave the alarm, 0 $ td cried out, " the French ! the French !" l'uis cry resounded through the city, and spread a general athight among ev,ry class of the in habitants. No one save himself limo to examine the truth : nothing was thought of but iNht, and all took to their heels as fast as possible. The whole city would have been deserted, if BEALTLIEU had not dispatched an hussar, in all haste, to inform the fugitives cf:their mistake, and assure them that he was already intreuched, with his rear guard, near the brid , e'6ihhe Adda, while his arw was pur suing its March to the Tyrol. My only object in giving this anecdote, is.simply to shew how widely BUONAPAHTE wanders from the truth in his account of tho ad . :lir at Codogno. If the Rea2.er be now carious to know why the inha bitants of Lodi were so terrified at the first cry of the arrival of the French, that they all took to flight, it will.:nc t r . be ditault to account either for their terror, or.-thcit4recipitation. Both were the natural effeas 'of thAgeonduti which the French army pur sued dorineilkli whole of the Italian campaign ; a condu& on which it will not be amiss to dwell, and which well deserves a chapter apart, after we shall have spoken of the battle of Lodi'. (To 6e continued.) It is said that BU9NAPARTE sent some proposi tions to the Central Junta in Spain, from Erluith, at the Saft Ance. 11r,lt ha, sent the Nlessen3ers to this country. A notice was yesterday posted at Lloyd's Coffee house, stating, that seven vessels bound to Heligo land, and tie from the Baltic, had been taken by a French Privateer. INDIA - HOUSE.-Yesterday a Court of Direelors was held, when Captain HENRY RUSH was sworn into the corn nand of the Ship Royal Charlotte, con signed to .t;Nina (Urea. The Court adjourned at six o'clock 'till Wednesday next. In the .Letters from St. Petersburg!), the depar ture of the Emperor is only slightly mentioned; but it is positively stated, that when he reached Konigs burgh he paused, and it became a matter of doubt whether he would proceed further or return. It was not until he had reached Konigsburgh that he was informed the Emperor of AUSTRIA was not to be of the Erfurth Party. The British Fleet has quitted its station off Baltic Port, and left three Swedish Ships to watch the Rus sian Squadron. The V iaory, Sir J. SAUMAREZ'S Flag-ship, was o ff Ol an d on t h e Ist October ; she had been ; by the Aboukir and two others on the 30th Sep,tember. The Orion was stationed off Dragoe. Mr. THORNTON had been for a few days oft board the firiaory, but had taken his leave of Sir JAMES. Three pigeons were sent off for London from the field of battle, on Tuesday, to announce the victory of Crib. The flight of these birds was beautiful ; they at the outset described circles in the air, rising higher and higher, until they found their proper ob jett, for which they darted off like an arrow frorn a bow. REYNOLDS has not resigned his dramatic pen, though his family has recently gained a great pecu niary acquisition by the death ofa .wealthy relative. The whimsical Bard has an opera of two in pre paration, the music of which is to come from illAz- ZINGHI, and therefore the public are sure of having something worth hearing. About a year since, a man of the name of IVl'Do nald was arrested for debt, and after putting in 'bail to the action, absconded. Bills were posted about the metropolis offering a reward for appreliendit4 him, but, Iris retreat was not discovered till last Sun day morning, about 1 t o'clock, when a police offi cer and t : wo,constables went to the place of his con cealmeuts„igtd found him and Vie woman he coha bited Wiih ) ip an apartment on the second floor of a hair,...lresl.4 l 's in Creed-lane. The party having taken tits. j abl,lirp,„-fsecured the door, and the l a dy h e ld a parlilyil declaring, upon her honour, .that IVl'Donald would surrender himself quietly if they would only wait till to-morrow; and that in the mean, time she would treat them handsomely for their forbearance; but .this remonstrance being of no avail, the officers burst open the door. tVl'Donald made his escare out of the room by dropping from the window into Holiday-)aid, and what is remarkable, alighted on his lett unhurt. He was not, however, aware that two constables were waiting in the street, to take cars of and after making considerable resistance, i n toniqillid - oeirly killed the first man that atta:ked 11101, he'Wa9'iit length safely conveyed to the Comp ter. i